Release Notes: Important Issues in Windows Server 2012

08/31/2016

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Applies To: Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

These release notes address the most critical issues and information about the Windows Server® 2012 operating system. For information about by-design changes, new features, and fixes in this release, see documentation and announcements from the specific feature teams. For information about important steps to take before installing this release, including issues that you may need to work around, see Installing Windows Server 2012, a document available at the same location as this document. Unless otherwise specified, these notes apply to all editions and installation options of the Windows Server 2012.

This document is continuously updated; as critical issues requiring a workaround are discovered, they are added.

Setup with UEFI and 4K native drives

If you boot a computer in UEFI mode from the Windows Server 2012 installation DVD and then attempt to install Windows Server 2012 onto a drive that uses the 4K logical sector size (“4K native”), you will receive the following error: “We couldn't create a new partition.”

To avoid this, create the needed partition using Diskpart.exe instead of allowing Setup.exe to do it. When the installation wizard gets to the Where do you want to install Windows? page, press SHIFT+F10 to open a command prompt. Use DiskPart to create the partition, and then return to the installation wizard to continue installation. For information about using Diskpart.exe for this, see Sample: Configure UEFI/GPT-Based Hard Drive Partitions by Using Windows PE and DiskPart

If this has already occurred, follow these steps:

On the Where do you want to install Windows? page of the wizard, select a partition created by Setup and then click Delete. Repeat for any other partitions also created by Setup.

Click New to create a new installation partition, and then continue with installation.

Upgrade

If you upgrade from a Full installation of Windows Server® 2008 or Windows Server® 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2012 in Server with a GUI mode, and then switch Windows Server 2012 to Server Core mode, conversion back to Server with a GUI mode will fail.

To avoid this, delete these registry keys with the following commands:

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